explaination for dead cattle

I heard something on Farm Week tonight that I hadn't concidered before. They said that a lot of cattle that have died in the heat lately have died from drinking TOO MUCH water. Said it caused an electrolite imbalance and killed them. I'd never heard of such a thing,much less concidered it.

had it happen 1 time moving cattle to get them out of harms way from a hurricane had a 3yr. old simmental bull get hot in the trailer when we unloaded he drank real heavy and fast from the trough walked about 20 steps and dropped.

yes it is
Possible

on the news other night they said same thing could happen to people -- they were sayn one need to drink a sports drink for the eletrolites
gregger

It [i:654c4848f0]may[/i:654c4848f0] be possible but I think more likely they are too hot. Saying a "lot" of cattle died from drinking too much makes it sound like a large percentage which I doubt. Maybe a "lot" is ten out of a thousand.

Sounds like an Al Gore explanation. Those record cold temps around the country past couple years is evidence of global warming. What a Jerk!

I thought it was happening when they just drank too much water after going without water then being given access to all they wanted. They just drank too much. I never heard of this happening either.

In the Arizona desert, if a dog has been running and drinks a quart of water at one time, he'll most likely die. We lost two dogs before we figured this out. We now let them drink a 1/2qt then wait 1/2hr then let them drink another 1/2qt then wait a 1/2hr then they can drink as much as they want with-in reason.

The first dog we set there and watched him drink a quart then he keeled over and died, just that quick.

If they have not been running, then they drink the typical 3 or 4 mouth fulls then wait for a few minutes before drinking more without our supervision.

T_Bone

Here in, Jones, Dubuque, and Delaware counties(Iowa), we lost a lot of cattle Tuesday afternoon. The Temperatures where in the high 90s, 80% humidity, and the wind died. Average wind all day was 3.5 mph with the top wind 8 mph.

One real close neighbor lost 49 #1000 steers. HE is a great livestock man, good pens, shade, plenty of water. He said that right at 3 pm he saw two steers go do. He went to get the skid steer to get them out of the pen. When he came back he said they where dropping like domino"s. He had water misting over head. He called the fire department and they flooded the concrete with water. Some of the cattle that had dropped cooled off and got up. Still a big lose when you only had 350 head on the farm.

The Delaware sale barn at Manchester had the County fair cattle from last weeks steer sale still there to be re-sold on the regular Tuesday sale. Remember these steers had long hair and where used to being babied. They lost 100 head by the days end.

Several other farmers lost double digit numbers too. Local rendering plant had 350 calls by 9 am Wednesday morning.

State vet came and posted several of the cattle. Said that the cattle had internal temperatures of 110 degrees plus and that shut down the internal organs.

I have 680 steers on feed right now. 350 of them are about ready for market, #1200 plus pounds. They all have shade. I also have a airplane prop that I have mounted on a trailer(caged all around it) that is PTO driven. Kind of like a stationary air boat. I put it at one end of my loafing shed with a JD 4020 on it with 1000 rpm PTO. That tractor was blowing smoke all day Tuesday and Wednesday. That old prop can really move a lot of air. It has saved me many cattle since I built it in 1978. You could not buy real big fans then.

There is a Government program that was part of the disaster Farm bill of 2008. It pays 75% if they die from weather caused problems. You have thirty days to notify the local Farm Services Office. I just read this on the Cattleman"s web site. I don"t know the details of it other than what was in the article.

The idea that you can over water cows during hot days in nonsence. Cows can't sweat, they pant, just like dogs do. On a hot day a cow can drink upwards of 50 gal of water, she probably excretes half of that from her breath attempting to cool down. Assuming that the water is of good quality, I have seek cows hanging out in a creek drinking their own waste and getting sick. During the hot days provide free choice mineral supplements, and control flys so the cattle don't bunch together. The idea that you can save cows during hot water by limiting water is just plain strange. Backwards actually.

I am not a cattle man, but it seems like the temp. of the water may have a bearing on the problem. Have you ever been real thirsty and gulped down a glass of ice water? Gave you stomach cramps didn't it?

(reply to post at 18:47:26 07/22/11)Sounds like an Al Gore explanation. Those record cold temps around the country past couple years is evidence of global warming. What a Jerk!

Click to expand...

Speaking of Jerks, how about guys who try to turn every post political? You're flapping your yap about global warming being fake during one of the biggest heat waves of the summer. Dumb as dirt.

'nuff said about that.


There must be some truth in what you say. My grandpa played with horses and mules during his final years. He was born in 1917 and knew a thing about actually farming with horses. I got to work with him and the horses a little bit. He said after they came in from the field work, they wouldn't let the horses drink for a half hour to let them cool down and keep them from drinking too much.

Speaking of Jerks, how about guys who try to turn every post political? You're flapping your yap about global warming being fake during one of the biggest heat waves of the summer. Dumb as dirt.

'nuff said about that.


There must be some truth in what you say. My grandpa played with horses and mules during his final years. He was born in 1917 and knew a thing about actually farming with horses. I got to work with him and the horses a little bit. He said after they came in from the field work, they wouldn't let the horses drink for a half hour to let them cool down and keep them from drinking too much.

Ive worked with horses and was taught to limit water when it was real hot.I usually put a quart in a pail and they would refuse at times.Saw a herd of angus in the shade a few days ago.Two of them were out in the sun.There a small apple tree near the pasture gate.Old cow was laying in the shade of it.Just a wild tree that Ive thought of cutting down.I notice she is preety good a finding shady spots in this heat.Farmer died of heat stroke here.Ive picked up a lot of hay at night to avoid the heat.

Never heard of that. I lost two cows the other day. They came into parlor with tongues hanging out got milked walked out and layed down in the alley. Never got back up. Some cows just cant take the heat. They are just like people.

You're flapping your yap about global warming being fake during one of the biggest heat waves of the summer. Dumb as dirt.

'nuff said about that.


Hay! I never said anything about global warming being fake. What I was saying is how some folks try to justify what they say with something ridiculous. Now who is flapping their yap about what I said?

It"s possible.
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